In Karlsson’s case, it’ll really come down to whether San Jose will retain 30 percent, 40 percent or 50 percent of the contract - a not insubstantial stumbling block - and then extract enough real value to make it worth their while. In any negotiation, getting two or more teams involved in a bidding war will drive up the price. That’s an entirely different dynamic compared to the bidding war that will surely emerge for Meier, with at least two Eastern Conference teams, Carolina and New Jersey, both needing what Meier brings to the mix and both having the cap space to make a deal happen, and potentially sign the pending RFA to a lucrative long-term extension. If the Sharks wait until summer, possibly more will emerge. The negotiations he’ll need to undertake could not be more different.įor Karlsson, I see only one true potential buyer in-season - Edmonton. Grier has two intriguing assets potentially for sale: Karlsson and Timo Meier. Just because it’s such a stable position, it seems odd that for the second year in a row, a rookie GM may be the central figure at the trade deadline, after Kent Hughes of the Canadiens was front and center a year ago. In many ways, at this trade deadline, there is an awful lot in the hands of Mike Grier, the ex-Oiler, who is running the Sharks in his first full season as an NHL general manager. It seems like a natural fit, Karlsson to Edmonton, if you can shoehorn that pesky salary-cap charge into your budget for this year and for the foreseeable future. He could lift the Oiler boat to an entirely new level. Karlsson can be a catalyst, not just with the way he drives play, but in the way he carries himself - with supreme confidence. Teams that are stuck need a catalyst to galvanize the core. All have played 55 games.įor years, the Oilers have looked like a team that’s stuck in the middle. But if you want to maximize the Connor McDavid/ Leon Draisaitl years, it’s a move you almost have to make.įour points separate the top four teams in the Pacific Division - Vegas, Seattle, Los Angeles and Edmonton. Acquisition cost, and how much salary San Jose might retain, are the critical and deciding factors in the equation. If history is an indication - or you believe the theory that past behavior influences future behavior - I don’t see Karlsson’s age necessarily scaring off Holland. More recently, the Oilers were prepared to add a key vet on the blue line, Duncan Keith, from Chicago, to stabilize a position in flux after Oscar Klefbom’s career-ending injury. He was a key figure in the 2002 Stanley Cup win - at the 40. He played an additional 10 years for Detroit which included 578 regular-season games and 103 more in the playoffs. So when it comes to the team most linked to Karlsson in trade chatter, the Oilers, remember that when Oilers general manager Ken Holland was running the Red Wings he acquired Chris Chelios from the Blackhawks to add a defensive reinforcement to a team that looked stacked everywhere else.Ĭhelios was 37 at the time of the trade. So really the issue today is how much will be left in the tank in a year, in two years, in three years and in four years? He will be 33 before the start of next season. And the accompanying figure to that is four - the number of seasons after this one for which Karlsson is under contract. Maybe the number is 11.5? That’s the number, in millions of dollars, that counts against the NHL salary cap. It never mattered too much because most coaches will tell you that there’s risk and reward attached to every NHL player and you build a championship contender if you have enough players where the reward outweighs the risk. His style of play, even in the halcyon Senators days, was always high risk.
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